Paint the Sky With Stars
by Zurui Karasu
Summary: What would happen if Gaav and Phibrizo met upon another plane, in another life that followed their demise? Your guess is a good as mine! But throw in the soul of a tormented ancient dragon, and things are bound to get interesting!


Author's note: This fic is based loosely on the movie "What Dreams May Come" starring Robin Williams, and I thought it a PERFECT set-up for good o' Phibrizo and Gaav to star in a fan fic together!  Since well…  They're both dead!  The romantic element of the movie also remains intact, and this fic shall forevermore be heavily oriented around the Gaav/Val pairing, which I happen to adore!  Gaav isn't going to go through hell to save any ol' being from eternal damnation dammit!  If the thought of them together or slash in general makes you ill feel free to bite me and leave!  ^_^  It's rated R mostly because of future things, that will be rather on the sexual and violent side, and for Gaav's filthy mouth.  That said, if you're still here, (Which you should be….  If not I'm personally sending Valgaav out to beat you to your foul accurséd doom with a blunt object!)  enjoy!

Paint the Sky With Stars

Chapter one: In which the heroes of _this_ story meet again, and _calmly_ discuss a few trivial matters.

A single cerulean light shone boldly alone above in the vast and sovereign pallid purple strata, thin wisps of mournful grey clouds rising to meet themselves like massive and frail wings, folding protectively over the glistening surface of the water beneath it.  The frozen silver mirror reflected in a perfect shimmer the sky and the light, dancing softly in stillness until a pitch black feather, falling from somewhere unknown plummeted from the sky, and lighted daintily upon its surface.  The hoary, aqueous mass rippled irksomely, fracturing the blue light of the lone star, hurling the fragments about the surface, tossing the plume and washing it obligingly closer to desire.

A lucid ebony shadow interrupted the playing light and the unbroken surface of the water, and the shaft brushed its serene and pale face adoringly once, then meandered softly away to a quiet death on the horizon.  The soul stirred in its wake, color washing over his form and senses as light seeped into his being, tugged at his body and mind and bid them rise, the rings of vibrant radiance ebbing complacently away as he opened his eyes slowly.

The pool rippled cordially in welcome as his gaze focused and fell upon it, and he felt its gentle embrace about his body, soothing and cool in the aftermath of fire glimmering gently and far away at the back of his mind.  The undulating surface of the water dithered slightly as a second set of waves joined it, colliding with the first in a splash of color and light.  The soul sighed peacefully, glancing only once about his environs before allowing his body to slacken in final repose, not noticing the gentle sound of lapping water, or the pair of small graceful pastel green boots just barely visible as they strode puckishly toward him.

He paid them no heed as they halted abruptly at his side, the light playing so flippantly and carelessly across his vision and calm body he could do nothing but smile contentedly and inhale deeply as a high velvety child's voice rang above the quiescence.  

"Hey!  So _there_ you are!  I've been wondering what happened to you!"  

He blinked once in confusion, and glanced furtively to the owner of the green boots, his eyes slowly inching up the small figure only to find a pair of gleaming and mischievous amber eyes he knew all too well grinning back at him as the familiar young raven-haired boy who owned them raised a hand cordially.  

"Miss me?  My dear, beloved demon dragon?"

The flame-haired Mazoku was instantaneously on his feet, memories returning in a flash as he gazed upon the Cheshire grin of the Hellmaster himself, sword drawn expertly from the sheathe still strapped tightly to his back and pointed vehemently at the young boy.  

"You," Gaav seethed through clenched teeth, "What the hell are _you_ doing here?"  Phibrizo merely laughed and closed one eye pretentiously as he turned half away with a nonchalant wave of his hand, the deep serenity of purple draining away into a luminous gray mist that skated and skipped thinly across the deepening silver they stood in.  

"Why Gaav, I would have thought you happier to see me!  But, under the circumstances, I suppose not!  It looks like you've been out of it for quite some time!" he chortled back as the light paled.  

"What 'circumstances'?" Gaav growled back lowly, "I do believe we have something to finish!  And since it seems you have the guts to come back here, I might as well give you the honor of finishing it quickly!"

Gaav drew back his sword menacingly, his grin growing wide and wicked until Phibrizo turned back, raising an eyebrow and frowning as he scrutinized the dark man in front of him for a moment, opened his mouth to say something, then stopped himself, the impish smile and demeanor creeping craftily back into his form as he spoke.  

"Ooooh!  You mean that, let's say, little scuffle we had a while back?  Over something so small and outright silly as a hostile takeover of the Mazoku race?  Oh Gaav, that was over aaaages ago!" he laughed brightly, and Gaav lowered his weapon confusedly.  

"Over?" he blurted dumbly, "What the hell do you mean, _over_?"  

"I won of course!" the boy declared pointing proudly to himself, "I defeated demon Dragon King Gaav!  Not that it was hard at all though!"

Phibrizo skipped merrily a few times at the mere mention of his victory, splashing the metallic fluid at his feet and kicking it playfully at the dumbstruck crimson-haired Mazoku, who had long since let the broad sword drop to his side and resigned to gaping vacantly at the small boyish form of the Mazoku lord of the underworld.  

"Pfft," Gaav sneered at last, "You couldn't have won, why are you here then?"  The sprightly golden-eyed boy continued to hop vivaciously in the water, paying little attention to the words of his former adversary, simply shrugging and snickering vindictively once more.  

"Well if that isn't obvious!  I'm-" he chirped, looking into Gaav's bewildered and furious eyes, and stopping dead in his tracks, "You really don't know, do you?"

Gaav, finally sensing that perhaps the old adversary had not indeed come to finish their battle, sheathed the sword clenched tightly in his palm and folded his arms irritably over his chest as he continued.  

"Know _what godsdammit!?  You're being as cryptic as Beastmaster Zelas' annoying little slave…" he sibilated, bristling at Phibrizo's pedantic smirk thrown contemptuously over his shoulder at him with a mocking giggle.  _

"Heh, you're dead of course!" he chirped in a pleasant intonation, and watched Gaav's jaw drop gleefully.

He stared blankly at nothing in particular for a moment before pointing accusingly with a furiously trembling hand at the other soul hovering over the silver lake as it flushed with an iridescent rainbow of colors.  

"No way… No way in hell you killed me!" he snarled brusquely.  

"Oh?  Is it that hard to believe?  You could barely put up a fight!" was Phibrizo's only response, and Gaav thought moment, blinked, then dropped his arm and folded it across his chest to pout again.  

"Fuck…  Well, if I'm here, and I'm dead…" he began, lips curling into a serpentine grin as it finally dawned on him, "Then that must mean… You bit the big one too!"

Phibrizo twitched visibly, not bothering to answer, and Gaav burst immediately into peals of deep laughter, falling to the ground and pointing mockingly to the other Mazoku once more, one hand still over his stomach.  

"You mean after all that fucking arrogant attitude and bragging about offin' me, you still got whacked?" the demon dragon laughed brightly, and Phibrizo huffed.  

"Well, at least it took the mother of all things to kill me!" he countered snidely.  

"L-sama?  L-sama herself killed you?  That's even better!" Gaav sputtered merrily as he sat upright, still grinning.  

"Well I was after all asking for it!  I should still be alive!  Unlike certain traitorous demon dragons!" quipped the hellmaster acerbically.  

"Big deal!  I at least had a reason to get killed, you _asked for it?  How dumb can you get?!" Gaav was still laughing as he continued, "Of course she's gonna kill you if you ask for it!"  _

"Well I was _hoping, Gaav dear, to accomplish a rather worthy mission if you don't mind!" Phibrizo snapped irritably.  _

"Oh yeah, return the world to chaos, sure, truly noble, yeah," Gaav responded mockingly, rolling his eyes.

The two dead Mazoku lords stared virulently at each other for only a moment before Phibrizo plopped to the ground pragmatically to join Gaav with a sigh, crossing his legs and placing his hands gingerly across his ankles.  

"Fine so it wasn't _that great of an idea…" he groused.  _

"Glad you admit it," Gaav added cheerfully.  

"Not like yours was any better," Phibrizo retorted with a fond smile.  

The crimson-haired soul remained silent after the remark, squinting his eyes upward at the pale sky, then back down to the mirror like surface he sat upon, his own confused and bewildered, slightly lost looking expression staring back at him.  

"So I'm really dead huh?" he mused at length.  

"As a doornail!" Phibrizo finished happily.  

"A ha…  Funny…  Nice talking to you Phibrizo," Gaav announced sharply and stood, shoving his hands in his pockets and striding past the startled boy.  

"Hey wait!  Where are you going?" he called after his companion, leaping to his feet and running after him.  

"I dunno!  Anywhere but here!" came the jovial answer as the mists parted.

They cleared rapidly and Gaav found himself suddenly walking through fragrant spring breezes and a vast, rambling field of tall emerald green grass and jeweled wildflowers that waved and sparkled wickedly in the sun.  Phibrizo bounded puckishly beside him, disappearing quickly to one side, only to appear laughing brightly at the other side, almost unnoticed in his wonder.  

"Well this makes little sense…" Gaav muttered, his eyes toward the cloudless blue sky, attempting vainly to ignore the antics of the small boy who had taken to running in circles through the gems around him, "And why are you following me, hellbrat?"

Gaav twitched as he barely heard an answer of, "Dunno!" as Phibrizo's form cart wheeled wildly in front of him and then vanished again into the glimmering strands of green, then continued walking.  

"Where are you going?" the boy's voice asked innocently against the rustle of grass from the ground, though not gaining Gaav's attention.  

"To try and figure out where the fuck this place is!  What do you think?" he snapped virulently, shoving his way through the foliage.  

"Touchy!  No need for language!" Phibrizo chided amiably as a small bright blue bird fluttered past over their heads.  

"Well it's not like you're being any help…" Gaav snarled back, "You're supposed to be the hellmaster, if we're dead, shouldn't this be your thing?"  

"Well…  Sort of!" he admitted with a shrug.  

"Sort of?  What do you mean sort of?" The red-haired Mazoku asked in an irksome voice, grimacing at the expanse of the field that stretched to infinity before him.  

"Well, I merely sent your soul here, or… Somewhere else," Phibrizo explained puckishly, "A gatekeeper if you will!  There isn't really a single place one could define as heaven or hell, merely, the afterlife.  It's what we all make of it, our happiness, our sorrow, or… Even being lost."

Gaav halted suddenly at the uncharacteristically soft and sincere words, the wind rushing in response across the plain, flattening the emerald stalks in rippling, flashing torrents and tossing his long mane of blood red hair gently across his back as he turned, wide-eyed, to the ebony-haired boy trailing slightly behind him.  The sun wheeled wildly overhead as both souls watched and plummeted beneath the rippling green horizon to die with a flash of blood red against the canvas sky before Gaav could find the air to speak, and an icy sliver of a moon spiraled into view casting in silver nets a veil of stars across the mottled violet sky.

"Is that really all there is?" he asked reverently as he watched the dancing celestial bodies.  

"No, of course not!" Phibrizo responded immediately, a hint of indignant tetchiness in his voice, "What do you think I am?  Boring and simple?  Just as all life is entwined with all others in life, so it is in death!  You alone create the final resting place of your soul, and it becomes you, essentially, a place on the map, with others beside you, overlapping, you, perhaps beneath, perhaps above!  This place is entirely created by whim, by personality, and, admittedly, to a lesser extent, a person's personal view of what their afterlife should be.  Everything here has meaning to someone, everything has a feeling, pretty damned ingenious, don't you think?"

The hellmaster beamed as he gestured to the serene and rustling fields in which he walked with his former arch nemesis, smiling complacently until he looked up into the oddly distant features of the taller man.  Shadows shifted soundlessly across his face as his midnight blue eyes darted bemusedly over the rolling grassland, eyebrows knitted tightly together in thought, and he said nothing at first as he began walking once more.  

"So what you're saying is I created this?" he asked absent-mindedly.  

"Not quite!  _It_ was made from _you_, technicalities, nothing major really!" Phibrizo responded nonchalantly, closing his eyes happily as he followed.  

"Wandering yet again when I croak…  Figures…" Gaav grumbled bitterly to himself, scowling toward the ground until he noticed that the formerly brilliant and perfect shards of emerald that created the field were stained in small flecks of red.

Alarmed, he looked up to the horizon, which loomed in the distance a hue of pitch, a gnarled and twisted iron gate rising to the stretched and broken sky that swayed and creaked foully in the wind.  Gaav quickened his pace, intrigued by the odd spectacle lying before him, ignoring the sharp tug he felt at the tail of his trench coat, and Phibrizo's loud and cautioning voice behind him.  

"Hey, not that way!" he barked, clinging to Gaav's garments and watching the grass in horror as it whipped across his legs and stained them in blood, "You do _not_ want to go that way!"  

"Why not?  Looks a lot more interesting than this!" Gaav answered resolutely, and lengthened his strides.  

The young boy was soon thrown violently from his grip upon the tail of the coat, and crashed to the ground in a pool of red, glaring daggers at Gaav as he began to run and his spiteful laugh floated high on the breeze.  Phibrizo clenched his fists furiously and pounded one into the dirt, wiping his face with the back of a hand as he slowly rose, watching the tall red-headed form disappear into the darkness that surrounded the black fence.  

"You're going to be very sorry…" he hissed virulently to himself, and trudged wearily after his companion.

Gaav, however, reached the gate gleefully, where the grass lay broken, amber and dead, but still tarnished in blood, gnarled black metal rising far above him into a pallid gray and white sky, and he peered curiously through the bars as an icy wind cut through his body and upset a few mangled black feathers at his feet.  Before him lay a seemingly endless expanse of flat, rolling, frozen land, covered in a wispy mist, and patches of pure white snow the only deviation from the morbid pitch and murky puddles of bloody water.  The ice too, was stained in red, and though a violent and mournful wind howled across the landscape, everything laid still and dead, except for the black feathers that pranced and looped in the air and skidded over the charred soil.  Gaav looked on, perplexed, and raised a hand experimentally, catching a plume in his palm and examining it for a moment, something stirring in the back of his mind as he ran a finger done the shaft affectionately, and closed his eyes.  A pair of smiling amber eyes flashed across his vision for a split second, and then vanished, replaced only by a burst of heat from his palm, as his eyes snapped back open only in time to watch the feather ignite into flame, smolder and disappear to ash which blew into the wind and sailed away.

The demon dragon watched it join the gray ash in the sky, frowning, unaware of the slight movement beside him on the opposite side of the gate, as a deep voice hissed from within it.  

"Why have you come here?"  Gaav started and whirled around, glaring in the direction of the voice which had come from a haggard, beaten, torn and bloodied black dragon, whose breath rasped deep inside his chest as he leaned heavily on the gate, rumpled and muddy black feathers hanging limply from his emaciated frame.  

"I was curious…" Gaav began cautiously, smiling and cocking his head thoughtfully to one side, "Are you…?"  The dragon smiled, a row of gleaming white teeth flashing in the dim light as he chuckled hoarsely, hacking roughly at the effort of doing so.  

"We are the ancients," he hissed, completing Gaav's sentence, "We accept our violent past…  We embrace it…  And we forever repent for the sins of others…"

Gaav took a few wary steps toward the ancient dragon, still smiling crookedly with a hint of genuine amicability and curiosity still seeping through his countenance as he inspected the ravaged creature.  

"And why do you do that?  Probably doesn't do you much good!" Gaav chortled as the ancient nodded solemnly.  

"We suffer eternally, such is our fate, and we cannot escape it.  War and death are the only ways of living, and because we chose not to, we perished…  We chose our death, and we cherish it…" he said slowly, closing his glazed golden eyes and turning his head away, rising painfully from the ground.  

"What?!  Hey, don't go!" Gaav snapped the instant the dragon began to lumber away, "Wait a sec pal, you're telling me you _chose this?  To roll over and die, and then suffer for it for eternity?  Bullshit!"  _

"I already told you why…  Demon Dragon King Gaav…  Now leave us be…" the ancient retorted instantly, spitting out his name and title vehemently before continuing on his way out into the wide frozen wasteland his race called their home in death.

Gaav snarled loudly and gripped the bars of the fence as the tormented creature began to meld into the mist that swirled and welcomed him back into it, reaching out one hand and opening his mouth to call to him, but stopped as his vision clouded.  A teal-haired young man with the same familiar cheerful yet tortured golden eyes that gleamed as they fell upon him ran through a hail of black feathers away from him, grinning with playful lust and untouched, pure adoration as he turned over his shoulder and beckoned him to follow.  The vision faded as Gaav reached out to the youth, crumbling into points of dark light as his mouth formed the mysterious specter's name, but no sound issued forth from his lips.  An agonized, piercing scream echoed in the ears of the red-haired Mazoku, and he fell to his knees as a wave of pain coursed through his body, crying out and wrapping his arms around his stomach.  

"I told you not to come here…" Phibrizo's low and gentle voice sounded behind him, but he ignored it, the pain ebbing away as he pulled one hand away from his body to find it dripping in bright red blood.  It faded away quickly as Gaav watched, leaving a long, angry white scar through his palm, which glared brightly from his dark, weathered skin for only a moment, then died away as well, and Gaav finally found the breath to say the name.  

"Val…" he whispered hoarsely, looking up and smiling puckishly, "I remember now…  It was…  Hey!  Ancient!  You're wrong!"

Gaav stood defiantly, though shaking slightly, as he bellowed as loud as he could across the frozen land to the ancient dragon that was merely a black blur on the horizon, but stopped dead in his tracks and remained stationary, not bothering to turn his head to acknowledge the Mazoku who spoke to him.  

"You're wrong about your race!  There is one who still lives and fights for life!  Not all of you are pathetic pushovers!" Gaav informed him smugly, crossing his arms over his chest as the ebon creature spread its tattered wings and lifted gently from the ground.  The old beast sailed precariously through the air, black feathers falling from his once majestic wingspan, plummeting to the wind which tore them ravenously apart and scattered their pieces as their owner lighted back in front of the still grinning Mazoku, baring his teeth fiercely.  

"You dare speak of young Val, who sold his soul to darkness?" he sibilated instantly, rearing on his hind legs and gripping the twisted black metal of the fence savagely.  

"Of course I do," Gaav answered backing away and grimacing, "If what you say is true, Val is the only ancient with any courage at all!"  

"You speak almost fondly of that garbage…" the dragon snarled, jowls still wide and fangs flashing in the dim light, "Val was not courageous…  He was a sniveling coward who was so terrified of death he would sell his body and soul to a dark lord just to live…"

Gaav held his tongue, clenching his fists lividly at his sides and closing his eyes as he felt Phibrizo's hand gently touch his, ripping it away virulently and oblivious to several more disheveled and haggard black dragons joining the first, whispering amongst themselves.  

"That's not true at all!" snarled Gaav at last amidst growing sounds of hate amongst Val's race, "I can't fucking believe what I'm hearing!  Val wants to avenge all of you!  I saved his fucking life and he's the only damn one of you who wants to survive!"  

"Val was a traitor!" a thin, wiry looking dragon wailed as it craned its long neck through the bars.  

"Yes!"  

"A Traitor!"  

"Spilled his own blood!"  

"Selfish!" 

Several other ancient voices echoed, chiming into a cacophonous howling that rose into the air and filled the world with its sorrow, and Gaav stared fiercely into each of their eyes and gritted his teeth until their screams and wails became unbearable.  

"Shut up!" Gaav roared in response, "Just shut the hell up right now!  None of you knew Val at all then did you?!"  

"We knew Val, not what he became…" the first dragon growled roughly, "Not what filth like you made him.  You stole his soul and ravaged his body, he is no longer worthy!"

Bristling with rage and trembling with restraint, Gaav glared menacingly at the small pack of brutalized Ryuzoku, and they backed slightly away accordingly, shrinking in fear and virulence as he opened his mouth to speak once more.  

"Then I'm glad the Goldens murdered you…  And I wish Val was here right now to prove to you what you could have been…" the flame-haired man sneered at the mound of black feathers and wavering golden eyes that held no soul.  

"Val forsook his race and brethren!" the dragon bellowed airily back, "He was unfit to join us here!  And now he forever wanders in anguish because of you!"  

"That isn't true!  You're weak and twisted, Val is three times the person any one of you are, and I'm glad I saved his life, because as the last he gives your race dignity and honor, as someone who refused to die and live by other people's-" he sibilated abhorrently, but stopped as he felt a mournful tug at his coat, and looked down into the apologetic and genuinely sorrowful eyes of Phibrizo.  

"Val's dead, Gaav…" he whispered sadly and the demon dragon forgot instantly the pack of Ryuzoku who snarled hungrily at him.

"Wh-What did you say?" he breathed incredulously.  

"Val's dead…" Phibrizo repeated firmly and Gaav shook his head as he stepped away from the gate.  

"No…  That can't be…  I don't believe it!" his voice shook as he spoke, eyes wide and staring into the eyes of the ancients which had grown fiery, large, and loomed behind gnarled bars of black as they leered condescendingly at him.  

"He died not long after you did, he's been here all along," the hellmaster added sagely, the sympathetic tone still lacing his voice.  

"If Val's really gone…  Like you say, then is he here?  With you?" Gaav demanded loudly, glaring at the Ryuzoku.  

"He came to us once, yes, covered in his own blood and tears and we turned that piece of filth away, he is still tainted, and undeserving of our love," a distinctly feminine draconic voice hissed, accompanied by a loud rush of air as several dragons fluttered about agitatedly.  

"Oh shut up..." Gaav groused roughly, whipping his head back to the dragons to drive the point, but was fixated on Phibrizo instantly afterward, "You've got to know!  Where the hell is he?"

The hellmaster shrugged and closed his eyes, shaking his head brightly with a tiny grin as Gaav grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.  

"I have no idea!  Really!  If I did, I'd tell you!" he chirped, but opened his eyes slowly as his voice grew solemn, "But he isn't here…  He really isn't worthy to join the rest of his race…"  Gaav growled and shoved the black-haired boy back a few feet angrily, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring sideways through enraged and narrowed eyes as he turned back to the dragons.  

"And what do you know?  You have no godsdamned right to say that!" he scoffed in a gruff and short snipe.  

"I know a lot more than you," Phibrizo answered, rubbing his arms where Gaav's firm fingers had dug into them, "Your little Val was a very interesting case!  I enjoyed watching him a great deal, and if you ask me nicely, I think I just might remember some things that might be useful to you!"  

"Fuck you hellbrat…" was Gaav's only enraged reply, to which Phibrizo laughed brightly and clapped his hands together.  

"Well I see you're still as lacking in social graces as you are in common sense!" he chortled.

His sprightly voice and quip missed the ears of the demon dragon as his mind and body were filled with a frighteningly familiar deep voice that screamed his name, cried, and begged for him not to leave.  Gaav closed his eyes against, and pressed his hands against his ears in hopes to drown out the soul that pleaded so plaintively and devastatingly to him, muttering curses under his breath as the shouting and howling of the ancient dragons joined Val's lament in the air.  

"Gods damn it…  Val…" he hissed, oblivious to the horde of hunched Ryuzoku beginning to thin, and lumber away.  

"Leave us be, Demon Dragon King, Hellmaster," the original dragon sighed mournfully, "And leave Val be, he is where he belongs."

A baleful roar rose from the throats of every ancient still crowded by the gnarled fence that sealed them away and inside the world created for their pain, and a rush of wind as their wings collectively snapped open, and beat in unison wafted across the frozen ground and over the two silent Mazoku standing stoically to watch.  

"Wait…" Gaav whispered breathlessly as the screams and roars died away, looking slowly up as his consciousness slowly ebbed back to him, "Wait!  Don't go yet you bastards!"  He shook his head to clear it as he dashed forward, throwing himself into the bars of the gate and growling loudly as the ancient dragons lofted slowly and silently into the night sky, dark plumage raining from their ragged wings and obscuring the lights that danced so far above them.  

"You didn't tell me anything!  Where is Val?!" he demanded persistently, but the ebony creatures paid him no heed, and disappeared into the darkness from whence they had come.

Black feathers flew gracefully through the air, whipping across the black velvety sky and extinguishing the burning stars one by one, leaving the strata above the astounded and speechless Gaav washed and wan, a pallid dusty gray that held no brilliance save for the sliver of the moon that still hung precariously over the horizon.  

"I told you, you didn't want to come over here," Phibrizo chided amiably, "I didn't think you'd appreciate talking with the ancient dragons, though I'm not quite sure why hearing about Val was such a shock and upset you so badly!"  

"I'm not upset!" Gaav snapped, eyes still staring into nothingness, "I just- I, well…  It caught me off-guard is all…"

Gaav looked downward mournfully, watching the feathers crash grotesquely in the icy mud, wither, and die, fading into ash that blew away into nothingness, and held out a hand to catch one before it plummeted to the ground.  "Val," he breathed, watching as the blackness of the limp plume deepened and swirled with a galaxy of stars that spun in infinity and burned deeply and brilliantly through the inky darkness, then engulfed the feather completely as it burst into flame and incinerated to the cinders that joined its brethren in the sky.  

"Hey, come on, let's get outta here, talking to the ancients would depress anybody!" Phibrizo chirped amiably, tugging on Gaav's long coat, "Just forget about it!  It's not a big deal really!"  Gaav ignored him, staring with twisted features into his mangled and blank sparsely stippled sky as the thin clouds swelled and stretched across it slowly, glinting like ice in what little pallid light there was illuminating the monochromatic landscape.  

"What happened to him, Phibrizo?" Gaav asked firmly at length, still staring emotionlessly into the heavens, "How did he die?"

The boy opened his mouth to speak, but stayed his tongue, a few garbled incoherent sounds uttered the only answer he initially gave, cowering as Gaav's blazing sapphire irises turned on him angrily.  

"Well?" he growled, "You said you knew, I want to know what the hell happened to him!"  

"I do know…" Phibrizo breathed softly in response, "But I don't think you should hear it."  Gaav's eyebrow twitched visibly, and Phibrizo winced and cowered in the almost looming and imposing shadow he cast over him, narrowing his eyes in anticipation for the outburst he knew was coming.  

"What?!" Gaav roared, reaching quickly for his sword, "Val was my servant you sniveling little deathmongering sycophant!  If no one can tell me where he is then I at the very least deserve to know what happened to him!" 

Phibrizo backed slowly away from the gleaming tip of the blade, holding up his hands defensively in front of his wide golden eyes, laughing nervously and still avoiding the question as he glanced about frantically then directed his sight excruciatingly slowly back to Gaav.  

"You know…  You should really stop waving that thing around, it's not like it's going to do any good here…" he finally pointed out timidly, shrieking at the top of his lungs as Gaav threw the weapon forcefully to the ground with a roar and lunged toward him.  

"That's IT!" the infuriated demon dragon howled, grabbing the dark-haired boy by the throat savagely, "I have HAD IT with you!"  Phibrizo clasped his own hands around Gaav's, squawking and choking as the much larger man squeezed furiously, wrath blazing in his eyes and teeth bared ferociously while he shook his body.  

"Tell me!" Gaav barked loudly, and Phibrizo finally relented as he drew in a raspy breath.  

"A-Alright!" he squeaked through gasps, "Le- Lemme go!  I'll tell!  I'll tell!"

The imposing figure of his assailant blurred before the smaller boy's eyes as he was thrown violently to the ground, his vision whirling with colors and a white haze as Gaav placed his hands expectantly on his hips.  

"Well?" he quipped impatiently as Phibrizo rose slowly to his knees, hands painfully cupped around his throat and coughing hoarsely.  

"It's a long story, and it isn't very pretty," he finally choked in a small voice, inhaling deeply once more and exhaling as breath finally came easily, "But… if you insist, I suppose I should begin with the beginning, eh?"  

"That would be nice," Gaav muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes and extending a hand down to the hunched boy, "Come on, I don't wanna be here anymore, you can tell me while we walk."

The hellmaster looked quizzically at the rough, weathered hand extended bitterly to him by the flame-haired man who was otherwise turned completely away, and took it, wincing in fear as he was hauled roughly to his feet.  Gaav began walking briskly away along the fence immediately after retrieving, leaving a dazed, and rather disoriented Phibrizo behind who dusted himself off, and once he had gathered his quite literally shaken wits about him trotted after the red-haired figure slowing melting into the mist.  

"Alright, now talk," Gaav grumbled gruffly once the boy had joined his side, "And tell me absolutely everything."  

"Alright… But you're not going to like it!" Phibrizo sighed, looked once more to Gaav to confirm he genuinely wished to know the fate of his former servant, and closed his eyes sorrowfully as he begun, "After I killed you, and battled Lina Inverse and, well, lost…  The rest of your servants were all hunted down and killed so-"  

"Wait that's _it?" Gaav interrupted suddenly, voice laced with rage, "That all they killed him for?  And some damn fucking slave of a decrepit dark lord was able to take down Val?"_

Phibrizo snorted haughtily in Gaav's direction as they continued, a light haze of white meandering across the landscape as it grew frigid and drawn, the iniquitous black fence wheeling sharply away and curving out of sight into the vapor.  

"Language, Gaav!  You're a little sensitive about all this!" he chirruped slyly, but dropped the wily demeanor when Gaav shot him a warning glance out of the corner of his eye, "Well you'll be happy to know Val was the sole survivor, he alone had the tenacity and strength to fight and live and evade the many assassins sent after him!  After that, however, he became quite the little obsession of the Mazoku race, who hoped to bring him and his immense power to their side, as he gained quite a bit of it after your untimely demise!  You know, he was indeed very strong, he even managed to fend off Xellos on more than one occasion very much alive!"  

"Would you cut the crap and just get to who the hell killed him?" Gaav snarled brusquely, hand inching instinctively toward his blade in the long silence that ensued.  

"Well… I can see now that trying to avoid the subject isn't going to work…" Phibrizo finally relented with a groan, "Same old Gaav, rude, crude and right to the point!  Well, I suppose if you really want to know, the… Whole truth, the complete and utter gruesome truth, that is, I might as well tell you!"

The hellmaster's grin deepened, curling almost malevolently up at the oblivious Gaav who stalked with a chiseled expression upon his face and jaw set angrily across the smooth terrain, arms crossed bitterly over his chest as the boy began, barely hearing or believing his words.  

"Your death totally, completely, and utterly destroyed Val and everything he was, and held dear, the only thing his tormented soul could focus on other that the pain of losing you was whose blood needed to be spilled to avenge you, and forever right this final act of malice toward him, but…  With eternal hatred comes an eternal price, he sought the blood of Lina Inverse, as I was already dead, and lost his mind to his own sorrow, pain, and madness.  Val really died the moment you did in a way, the blackness consumed him and he lost what little he had left when he summoned and merged with the dark lord of the Overworld, Darkstar, with a pure wish in his heart corrupted by his rage and madness.  Val wished to begin the entire world again, purge it of its evil so no one would ever endure the magnitude of suffering he had, and fused with the dark lord, clashed with Lina Inverse and her friends who bore the five weapons of Darkstar and was destroyed…" the voice that recounted the events was low and commanding, hardly seeming to come from the vibrant little boy that was Phibrizo's form.

Gaav walked in complete silence, stoic, unfeeling as the words filled his senses with tormented visions of his ancient companion, and he closed his eyes ruefully and shook his head as the cruel voice faded away.  

"Damn that wretched Lina Inverse…" he growled vehemently, "So that's what happened…  Everyone who faces that little girl faces death itself!"  Phibrizo nodded in agreement, and plodded merrily along, watching Gaav's entire body twitch and tense with the rage that refused to register upon his face, leaving it blank and staring ahead across the lifeless and blanched path he walked which marched drearily across the rolling black hills through mists and time to infinity and cleaving the gleaming horizon in two.  

"Indeed, she is like divine a hand of fate, isn't she?  But…  That's not the end of the story, and not how Val finally met his end…" countered Phibrizo coyly, relishing the utterly shocked glare he received from the taller man.  

"What?!" he gasped, jaw dropping from its former tightly clamped state.  

"I told you it was a long story, and it doesn't end there, you see, the mother of all things took pity upon the last ancient dragon, and cleansed his soul, gave him life again, and he was reborn under the care of the last golden dragon.  He grew, but even The Lord of Nightmares herself could not fully erase the shadows of the past that still clung to the young dragon, and as his body and mind matured, they remembered what had once been.  It began as nightmares, flashes and glimpses of the slaughter of his people, his own death and rebirth at the hands of a strange man who then held and comforted him, only to be ripped from his grasp and murdered.  He was forced to spend sleepless nights searching through tomes in the great library at Seyruun, looking and hoping against hope he would find some record of this beautiful man who looked so kindly into his eyes as he ravaged his body.  The dreams grew more vivid and changed to visions as he became a young adult, plagued by them, tormented and haunted by the apparitions of blood and death that seemed so familiar, and he finally found in an account of the creation of the world, a picture of the tall dark man with the wild red hair that came to him every night.  It was Gaav, the demon dragon king who had saved him, a monster, the embodiment of darkness itself that had brought him so much comfort when he was in pain, and then left him, it was Gaav who saved his life, a Mazoku, a _monster_…  He couldn't live with knowing that his life was forever tainted by such power, that he was the last of his kind and the woman that dared call herself his mother was one of the beasts who destroyed his race and real family, and one night, sobbing alone in his room, Val prepared from the yellow pages of an ancient tome the poison that ended his life for the final time, and brought him here…"

Phibrizo's haunting voice tolled across the world, carried like the notes of a cruel cacophonous melody upon the frigid gusts of wind that tore through Gaav's coat and into his body, and his expression softened with the biting cold as a single black feather whipped through the strata.  

"He…  He killed himself?" the flame-haired Mazoku breathed skeptically.  

"Can't you feel him here?  Can't you see it?  His pain, his sorrow, that's why no one knows where he is," was the dark boy's only answer, pointing to the sky where the plume had skipped past upon the air, "Suicides are a strange thing, they have essentially toyed with the fabric of fate itself and as a result of coming here before they're ready, they're left with absolutely nothing but what they bring, and that's always their own torment and ire."  

The tone of the child-like voice had become stern and harsh, and both men stopped upon the road as pure white flecks of ice from the sky began to fall lightly about them, Gaav's midnight blue eyes turning slowly at last downward to the boy, any harsh callousness gone from his mien.  

"I do feel him…" he whispered in near veneration, then closing his eyes and shaking his head reproachfully, "He reached out to me before…  And I did absolutely nothing!  Gods damn I've been an idiot!"  

"There wasn't anything you could do Gaav…" Phibrizo snapped firmly, his golden eyes flashing authoritatively, "I tried to steer you away from here because I knew they'd remind you of Val, and there's just nothing you can do alright?  Now let's do the smart thing and go somewhere where there's more people who are enjoying their own personal heaven rather than hell."  

"Don't you dare tell me what to do hellbrat!" Gaav warned with a sneer, only to gain a spiteful laugh in response.  

"It really does please me to see death hasn't changed you my dear Gaav!  But I'm afraid I know what I'm doing much better than you!  Not even I know where Val is, and even if through some miracle you did manage to find your tormented little companion there would be no way to bring him back out of his personal twisted hell that he's sealed himself away in!  He's so mired in his own pain that it has become all he knows!  You are _dead_ to him Gaav, you wouldn't be able to convince him otherwise!" came the sniping and seething retort.  

"I don't care!  I can't just stand here letting the poor bastard suffer!" sibilated Gaav in a loud voice, "You're right, death hasn't changed me, so you should damn well know that now that I know about this, I can't fucking sit by and just let it happen."

A small and fond grin played upon Phibrizo's lips as a chortle escaped them, raising an eyebrow and shaking his head reproachfully at the fiery figure standing before him, edging even as he spoke away from him.  

"So stubborn and determined as usual!  But I can't let you go, you'll only be pulled into it and you'll lose your own mind!" he replied softly, his expression suddenly growing grave, "Come on, just forget about him and let's get out of here…"

Gaav stood still, frowning deeply as the black-haired Mazoku strode a few encouraging steps away from him, eyes and head bowed to the ground and watching the tiny flacks of snow fall and seeing and hearing nothing but the pain of a soul so inextricably attached to his.  

"The once choice I was glad I made…" he whispered to himself, "And I thought it was so stupid, using my own power saving someone's life hoping to make them a servant…"  He laughed fondly to himself, the words of the hellmaster no longer consequential in his mind, and smiled wryly, straightening his stature and clearing his throat as Phibrizo peered confusedly over his shoulder at him.  

"Alright!  You go on to wherever it is you so desperately want to be, I've got my own matters to attend to!  Nice seeing you again, my dear Phibrizo!" Gaav called brightly, mocking the tone of voice his companion addressed him with as he turned toward the infinite white-lined path that shone with the silver light of the sky.  

"Good, that's what I thou- Huh?!  Wait!  Where are you going?!" Phibrizo yelled back, horrified, swiftly wheeling around and sprinting to join the taller man's side again.  

"To look for Val of course!  Where else?" Gaav chirped with a smug grin, relishing the look of sheer panic on Phibrizo's blanched face.  

"What are you stupid or something?!  Did you not hear what I just said?" he hissed furiously.  

"Of course I did!  And I'm, as usual, ignoring all of it!  You seem _awfully_ sensitive about this!" the red-haired Mazoku quipped mockingly, ignoring Phibrizo's furious growl and drowning it out with a booming laugh.  

"That isn't funny…" he snarled to himself, folding his arms over his chest, "Well…  If you insist upon forever damning your mortal soul to the depths of hell and eternal torment and agony…  Then I suppose I'd better come along and see it off!"

Gaav and Phibrizo shot each other a wily grin as they trudged on across the barren trail that has begun to snake daintily across the ground and cutting through a ridge of snow-capped mountains that lined the formerly deserted horizon, chuckling at each other as Gaav ran a hand absentmindedly through his long tresses.  

"You ass…" he muttered amiably, "If you slow me down I'll just skewer you and leave you in the dust!"  

"Oh that shouldn't be a problem I expect!" he piped in response, "The problem of course is what to do if you actually manage to find the guy!"  

"I'll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it!" said Gaav with a nonchalant shrug, not seeing the vexed, yet utterly delighted smirk plastered to Phibrizo's face.  

"Yes…  Yes you will…" he whispered to himself and continued along the road beside the blazing soul that defied the hands and threads of fate.  They plunged together into the darkness where none dared to tread in hopes of finding a light from the past still splitting the heavens with its brilliance, lost within the ebon shroud of sorrow and still calling out for those who could show him the way as a single star burned brightly in the dark sky above.


End file.
